Walk off the ferry in St. George today and the first thing you pass is still Empire Outlets, the retail complex built to anchor Staten Island's answer to the High Line. Years after its 2019 opening, less than half its storefronts are filled, and Nordstrom Rack, once the mall's marquee tenant, pulled out in 2024. The building went into foreclosure in 2022 owing $38 million to Sterling National Bank and $174 million to Goldman Sachs' Urban Investment Group, then sold at auction for $10 million in 2023. The 630-foot Ferris wheel it was supposed to sit beside never got built at all.
Two blocks up Bay Street, a wave of new restaurants has opened.
The Bay Street openings are unfolding alongside plans for the St. George waterfront.
Empire Outlets and the Waterfront Plan
Empire Outlets was conceived alongside the New York Wheel as a package deal: a 350,000-square-foot outlet mall paired with what would have been the world's largest observation wheel, together meant to pull millions of visitors off the ferry and into Staten Island's North Shore. The wheel collapsed under its own financing before a single panel went up. The mall opened anyway in May 2019 with room for roughly 100 stores, though only about 70 were ever built out, and fewer than half have stayed occupied since.
The ferry terminal, by contrast, mostly serves commuters.
A New Plan for the Waterfront Sites
In November 2025, the New York City Economic Development Corporation, working with Council Member Kamillah Hanks and with the backing of Borough President Vito Fossella, unveiled a new vision for both the Empire Outlets site and the vacant Wheel lot next door. The plan calls for up to 2,500 new homes at a mix of income levels, along with open space, community facilities, and neighborhood retail across the two sites.
NYCEDC President Andrew Kimball and the local officials involved were explicit about the reasoning behind the pivot: after years of a plan built around drawing outside visitors, the redesign is meant to serve residents first.
Other North Shore projects are also moving forward. Rezoning and environmental review are set to move through the Uniform Land Use Review Procedure starting in the second half of 2026. The Mary Cali Dalton Recreation Center opened on the North Shore this spring. Tompkinsville Esplanade Phase 1 is due to finish in 2028, closing a long-standing gap in waterfront access, and a reimagined Pier 1 is scheduled to reopen to residents that same summer.
Bay Street's New Restaurants
While the city was still drafting that plan, a cluster of new restaurants opened along the Bay Street corridor:
- Aqualine, a new seafood-forward concept from BOTA Hospitality Group, built around a raw bar and a small, considered menu.
- The Basement, the newest project from chef Julian Gaxholli, who also built Blue, Beso, and Bayou, bringing an American tavern format to the same stretch.
- Beso, the Spanish restaurant that outgrew its original room and relocated to a new location at 70 Bay Street.
- Tavern Next Door, a cocktail lounge built around disco-era drinks.
- Borikén, a full-service Puerto Rican restaurant and bar adding another distinct cuisine to the same few blocks.
Bay Street's dining scene has roots beyond this latest wave.
Ruddy & Dean, the steakhouse and seafood room the Mills family reopened under that name in July 2000, has anchored the same stretch for a quarter century. The new wave isn't creating a market from scratch. It's catching up to one that was already there.
The Ballpark and St. George Theatre
The Staten Island FerryHawks, the borough's Atlantic League baseball club, play their home schedule at Richmond County Bank Ballpark right on the St. George waterfront, with select sections priced at $12 a ticket and games presented by Staten Island University Hospital.
Designed by architect Eugene DeRosa and open since 1929, the St. George Theatre's fall 2026 calendar includes Dion on September 19, a Disco Ball 2026 show featuring The Trammps with Earl Young on September 26, the family-oriented Elmo's Got the Moves on October 2, George Lopez on October 9, a Rocky Horror Picture Show screening with live performers The Flesh Junkies on October 24, and a Phil Collins tribute closing out the month on October 30. The theater is even running a community fundraising outing, Laughs on the Links, on October 6, with donations matched two-to-one through the Staten Island Foundation's Diamond Matching Grant Program.
Its calendar spans live music, comedy, family programming, and community events.
What This Means If You Already Live Here
Put the pieces next to each other: the Empire Outlets and former Wheel sites are included in a redevelopment proposal that calls for housing. Nearby, Bay Street has new restaurants, the FerryHawks play at Richmond County Bank Ballpark, and the St. George Theatre has a fall calendar.
That's a useful thing to know if you live nearby. The proposal calls for more housing near the ferry, while the restaurant openings add to the list of dinner reservations worth making within walking distance.
If you're curious what that shift could mean for your own property here, Panache Real Estate tracks these North Shore changes closely and can walk you through what they mean for your home's value. Request your free home valuation whenever you're ready, whether a move is on your mind now or years away.
